


No Need to Talk

by jimikat



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Drinking, Estranged Caustic and Wattson, Gibby just trying to help, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28604532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jimikat/pseuds/jimikat
Summary: Caustic doesn’t want to talk tonight. That’s why he came to this bar, a dreary location that surely no one he knows frequents. He simply wants to have a drink or five and not have to deal with any bothersome fans. Or other Legends.Unfortunately for him, he isn’t the only Legend who comes here to escape.
Relationships: Caustic | Alexander Nox/Makoa Gibraltar
Comments: 9
Kudos: 26





	No Need to Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Loved the voice line interactions between Caustic and Gibby, where Gibby offers to talk about Wattson if he needs someone to listen. So I had to do this. :3

Caustic had no need to talk.

Which was what had led him here. Perhaps it wasn’t the nicest of bars. It certainly left something to be desired when it came to selection. And clientele. And cleanliness.

But it was discreet. It was a few turns off the beaten path. And, most importantly for Caustic, it was not owned by one of the more irritating Legends.

The few times he had made the mistake of drinking at the Paradise Lounge, he’d either been noticed by hopeful fans with father complexes or been the target of a few too many attempts by the barkeep to start up pleasant conversation.

Caustic was not in the mood to deal with either sort of nuisance.

Which was what led him to drinking his fifth subpar stout and trying not to think about the only person on his mind.

Someone who was no longer speaking to him.

Natalie Paquette.

Caustic sighed heavily, staring at the last inch of dark liquid at the bottom of his glass. Part of him, albeit a very small part, understood that this was his fault. Understood he had been wrong. Was proud of her that she was strong enough to stand up to him.

It was a very small part. A piece she had lured back out of the depths he had buried it in. She had made him into a different person, at times. One he used to be. One he was no longer comfortable being. One only she could see.

“Caustic?”

The doctor felt a jolt rip through him at the sudden address, even if he managed to maintain his visual composure. He looked over, refusing to hide the visible disgust, to find the only other Legend who could compete for sheer size.

Gibraltar was settling down on the stool next to him, his strong, dark face split into a wide grin.

“Well this is a surprise! Thought I was the only Legend who came here,” Gibraltar said, nodding to the disinterested bartender and holding up a finger. The bartender nodded and within a few seconds Gibraltar had a pint of golden beer with a strong head.

“It is not a regular occurrence,” Caustic assured, downing the rest of his beer and attempting to flag the bartender for his check. Gibraltar set a hand on his forearm, ignoring the glower of the older man.

“Ah c’mon, join me for a round, yeah?” Gibraltar asked. “At least don’t let me run ya off.”

Caustic knew he would regret it, but he couldn’t deny one more beer would get him exactly where he wanted to be. Slightly dulled and ready for an early bed, where he wouldn’t have to deal with more of these regrets.

At least until the morning.

The two men sat in silence, much to Caustic’s initial surprise, as they nursed their beers.

That was, at least, until Gibraltar inevitably broke it.

“Ya know, my offer still stands,” he said, his soft eyes staring at his glass. “My offer to… you know. Talk. About her.”

“And my response has not changed,” Caustic rumbled, drawing his glass up, tipping more of the rich stout past his lips.

“You say that,” Gibraltar began, stealing a glance. Was it his imagination, or perhaps the dim lighting, or did the shadows under Caustic’s eyes seem heavier than usual? “But you’re still here. Look, you don’t gotta talk. But it’s gotta be tough, even if all of this was…” Gibraltar faltered, stopped. Caustic turned emerald, morosely amused eyes to him.

“What? My fault?” He pressed. Gibraltar raised his hands in acquiescence.

“Doesn’t mean it don’t hurt. I know you care about her. Beyond just… what was it you said? Something about her scientific mind? Her potential? But it’s more than that, yeah?” Gibraltar asked. Caustic only grunted.

It was more than that. Natalie was more than just her mind, and her mind was genius. She was… Ugh. Caustic snarled a lip, sinking back into his drink.

And it was somewhere between that silently finished beer and the next when he found himself saying something he had never intended to say in front of Makoa Gibraltar.

“I care about the girl.”

Gibraltar looked about as shocked as Caustic felt at the sudden admission. Not that the information was a surprise. Just the willingness to voice it. Gibraltar held his tongue, hoping the doctor might find the nerve to keep talking. And after downing half his glass, he did.

“I hadn’t expected to… be quite so endeared. I had known her before, connected in small ways over her work. And after her father passed, it was… she needed… He left a void and I could never hope to… but…” Caustic sighed, hunching forward as irritation at being unable to find the proper words overtook him, his hair falling softly forward. “But she is kind and patient and perhaps I had begun to see her as the daughter I—”

Caustic stopped suddenly. His brows knit tightly together a second before his face turned away.

“Never had?” Gibraltar finished. Caustic didn’t turn back to him, simply muttered back,

“Never left.”

The words hung in the air, and Gibraltar decided not to chase them. They weren’t his business.

“So?” he said instead, motioning for the bartender to get another round. Caustic accepted without question.

“So what?” the doctor grumbled, realizing he had delved past _dull and sleepy_ and was steadily approaching _light-headed and loose-lipped,_ and he decided he didn’t quite care.

“What are you gonna do?” Gibraltar urged.

Caustic shrugged broad shoulders. “Nothing. If she wishes to end this, then I have no intent on forcing her. I am not as needy a man as that.”

Caustic hadn’t expected Gibraltar to be good on his promise to listen. But the man offered no advice, only a solid presence by his side. The doctor hated to admit that the presence was… comforting. Despite what he thought of the younger man, despite what he knew Gibraltar thought of _him_ , he somehow felt none of the judgment he knew Gibraltar must feel.

“She’s a good kid,” Gibraltar mused, rolling the base of his glass in a slow, careful circle. “I’ll be honest with ya, Doc. You make it hard to get close. Hard to… I dunno. Condone. But she musta seen something in you, ya know? So… what was it?”

Caustic hesitated. He wished he could have hesitated long enough to stop the answer. But that ability faded away after his sixth beer.

“Why do you think I want so badly to reestablish this relationship? She… I don’t know what piece of worth she saw in me. But… even now, even estranged as we are… she reminds me that once, once she _did_ see something. And she makes me feel that whatever it is isn’t quite so… lost. Anymore.”

And Gibraltar caught himself staring. Staring at a sad, old man who hadn’t just lost someone important to him, but had lost the one thing that reminded him of the goodness inside of him. Of the parts worth loving. It was almost enough to see those parts, see what Natalie saw.

Caustic heaved a sigh, downed his glass once more, and pushed it away. “And after such an embarrassing display, I’m sure I’ve had quite too much to drink.”

The doctor could feel Gibraltar’s gaze on him before he saw it. He turned his furrowed expression on the younger Legend, emerald eyes meeting rich, brown ones and finding himself unable to tear them away.

“I think I can see it,” Gibraltar said, his voice barely audible as it rumbled deep in his chest. He reached a hand towards Caustic, who probably would have recoiled, would have stood and left. But that ability had faded after his seventh beer. He let Gibraltar’s large, rough fingers slide through his beard, resting along the side of his cheek.

“I see it,” Gibraltar said as he leaned in. Full, tentative lips lightly brushed against Caustic’s, firm and narrow and unyielding. For a moment, that is. Until Caustic’s parted slightly, until his eyes drifted shut and he breathed in the warm musk of the human fortress before him. He told himself it was the eighth beer that allowed this, that he never would have permitted this had his mind been level.

But as he pulled Gibraltar into a kiss more befitting the man’s admission, he realized he was grateful his mind had not been level.

Grateful for a dark, subpar bar, grateful for several roads from the beaten path, grateful for no other Legends and no fans and nothing but Gibraltar’s firm, steady warmth against him.

And no more need to talk.


End file.
